#why would ANYONE DEFEND THIS

[firesmokeandashes]

All the fanfic readers/writers, after finding out they can't read their before-bed fanfics, and escape reality for a little bit, because ao3 is down:

[hussyknee]

I'm really not a villain enjoyer. I love anti-heroes and anti-villains. But I can't see fictional evil separate from real evil. As in not that enjoying dark fiction means you condone it, but that all fiction holds up some kind of mirror to the world as it is. Killing innocent people doesn't make you an iconic lesbian girlboss it just makes you part of the mundane and stultifying black rot of the universe.

"But characters struggling with honour and goodness and the egoism of being good are so boring." Cool well some of us actually struggle with that stuff on the daily because being a good person is complicated and harder than being an edgelord.

Sure you can use fiction to explore the darkness of human nature and learn empathy, but the world doesn't actually suffer from a deficit of empathy for powerful and privileged people who do heinous stuff. You could literally kill a thousand babies in broad daylight and they'll find a way to blame your childhood trauma for it as long as you're white, cisgender, abled and attractive, and you'll be their poor little meow meow by the end of the week. Don't act like you're advocating for Quasimodo when you're just making Elon Musk hot, smart and gay.

[wellijustfinnihedoneofthebooks]

I understand why everyones so mad about five x lila (i dont like it either) BUT i do think the setup of it (lost in time with no one else to rely on, protecting eachother, ect) would probably make five fall in love with just about anyone. Just like, this is kind of what he always imagined having with deloras. So i dont fully agree with the wide consensus that its out of character for him to fuck his brothers wife (in this specific scenario)

That being said, he absolutely wouldnt give up on his family over it.

[uniiiquehecrt]

Voice actors are NOT the same as actors.

It takes a specific kind of skill-set and training to be able to warp and meld the voice. It takes a certain kind of talent and dedication to hone that talent into the ability to meld the voice and invoke emotion with one's voice alone. Actors are used to using their voice secondarily to their body language and their facial expressions. It's all mirrored back on camera. They do have nuance. But it's a different kind of nuance and a different kind of training to produce that nuance.

Voice actors might get their likeness transposed on their character's design, and maybe their mannerisms might seep into the character's animation. But when it's all said and done: their presence is in their voice. They are bringing a character to life, showing that emotion in their voice, trying to keep a specific accent, drawl, pitch, tone in that voice and keep it consistent for their recording sessions.

The voice actor is like a classically trained musician who can play first chair in a competitive, world-renown orchestra. The actor (who fills the voice actor's role) is like a moot who played violin in beginner and intermediate high school orchestra and thinks they can get into Juilliard with that 2-4 years of experience.

This doesn't mean that the HS orchestra moot can't play. They can even be really good at it. Maybe they won competitions and sat first chair. But they are not in the same league as the person who's been training their whole lives and lives and breathes to hone their craft using the instrument and all of the training they've ever acquired to perfect it. They are not meant for the same roles. They are not in the same caliber. You do not hire the HS equivalent when you want to play complex music in a competitive orchestra.

Actors are not the same as voice actors.

And furthermore, actors - especially big name actors - taking the roles of animated characters for big budget films or TV pilots makes no sense anyways when - at least in the case of TV pilots - there's not a point to hiring a big budget actors anyways. That money could be used elsewhere (like paying your animators), and the talent that is brought onto the screen for X character could then be hired on to voice said character no recasting required.

I wouldn't say voice acting as a profession is in danger exactly, but it's certainly being disrespected and overlooked for celebrity clout, and this has ALWAYS been an issue. Shoot, even Robin Williams knew that much - which is why he tried so hard not to be used as a marketing chess piece for Aladdin and got royally pissed off when it happened anyways. People shouldn't go to any movie (but especially not animated films) because "oh famous actor is in it". People should go because it's a good movie and the voice acting is good.

People who honest to god think that voice actors are replaceable because "oh well anyone can voice act" or "I like xyz celebrity so naturally it'll be good" ... Honestly I just wish you'd reassess your priorities because you're missing the point and are part of the problem.

Voice Actors ≠ Actors.

[little-blurry-stars5]

"no one can love you until you love urself" yeah ok tell that to the langst fics I use to fall asleep

[reel-fear]

Genuinely so curious who Mike thinks is gonna be buying The Cage or the new DCTL GN bc with the way he tweets as far as he's concerned, it's not gonna be:

The queer people he has actively admitted he will never show any representation of in the games.

2. The POC he has actively fought against representing in his franchise. [Who he also mocked for thinking they would be represented in his franchise]

3. The Bendy fandom which has always been concerned with topics of diversity esp in the sense of queer people since its creation. Who he has responded to really poorly esp in regards to the GN.

4. The fans who critique him. [He blocked me for doing so lol]

5. His fans in general who he tweets about like this currently. [He's being vague about why people were mad at him or sent him 'nasty messages' because if you actually looked into why you'd see he was in the wrong. Either way, a very hateful way to speak abt ur own fanbase.]

Reminder while Mike is trash talking his fans he has always treated them rather poorly. The fans who won the fanart contest for Chapter 5 never got their posters actually in game due to it being rushed. Not only was chapter 5 a big slap to the face story wise, but it was literally so rushed he couldn't be bothered to add in the art his fans gave him for his game FOR FREE. [Meatly blames this on a crazy timeline, reminder him and Mike are the literal ceos of this company. The proposal of future updates here is also pretty cruel considering Mike nowadays happily admits he corrupted Chapter 5's source code and therefore literally can't update it At All currently. Because he is a moron]

At least they got to be in Boris and the dark survival, and by that I mean that was the Only game they got to be in so far, isn't that just treating your fans like you love them? Shoving their hard work into a spin off game almost nobody has played or addresses much. [Hell, who knows if with the Lone Wolf rebrand they'll even stay there. In which case they'll be in None of the games, only in the credits of BATIM]

6. The Bendy fans who just generally disagree with him on stuff. Like the new ink demon design where there is literally a public poll showing people generally prefer the old one.

7. The Bendy fans who can see he is actively lying to them. To their fucking faces.

He says this has always been the case, but screenshots and links to tweets regarding the books being canon prove it was not. Does he really think bendy fans are stupid or something? [Unless he's admitting here he lied to Kress when he told her the books were canon which sounds worse!]

8. Anyone who doesn't like the idea of giving money to a guy who laid off tons of employees then afterwards thought it was a great idea to express his anti-union views! Also brag about how good of an employer he was, according to his employees, he was not!

So in summary; Mike is an awful person who has not learned anything from the awful things he did. I will not be purchasing The Cage because, combined with this and his absolute refusal to take any kind of critique or see any differing interpretation of his franchise, I have no reason to think my problems with the franchise will ever be addressed or fixed. I probably will pirate The Cage along with any future Bendy Products [Including the movie] and will do my best to avoid giving it any kind of monetary support. Unless this changes any time soon, I can't see myself making anymore positive Bendy posts soon.

Mike has just managed to make it so hard to speak positively or optimistically of this franchise when he's so willing to broadcast how little he cares about it or its fans. I'm at the point where I refuse to pull any of my punches with my problems with it. What's the point of trying to play nice with my critique when either way the people creating it don't care?

So with this post, I want to invite anyone who feels similarly about the franchise to tell me, make a post or send an ask talking about how all of this makes you feel. It may not change how things are, but genuinely seeing other people share my feelings of anger makes me feel better. It feels nice to see when other people share our same concerns and worries. I'd also love to know if anyone else thinks they'll be avoiding purchasing Bendy products over this.

I'm not forcing anyone to participate in it nor trying to say anyone who doesn't supports mike but genuinely maybe if we can collectively decide to boycott things like the movie, graphic novel and The Cage... It might at least make the bendy devs acknowledge how much they have destroyed their own fandom's faith and trust in them.

The way Mike tweets about his actions like he had no control over why people were mad at him at least proves to me he takes NONE of it back nor regrets it. If you didn't know about his actions and only went off his tweets, you would be led to believe Mike has been needlessly picked apart by fans over things he couldn't control [or in his own words, had his words twisted and taken out of context]. That is not how you speak about your actions if you have actually learned better from them.

anyway, that has been my bendy dev callout post. This is an open invitation to anyone feeling similarly upset about the way the franchise is going to talk about it. It's genuinely nice to see how people feel about this and the more we talk about the more it's likely the bendy devs are forced to address our concerns. I don't think they will but hey, that's why I'm not gonna support them with my money anymore nor am I gonna be nice to them in any content I make critiquing Bendy. I mean I'm also basically making this post just in case anyone asks me Why I feel this way towards to bendy devs/as a way to respond to anyone who thinks I am too harsh in my critique in the future.

As always, it seems the best part of Bendy isn't actually anything about canon but about what the fan's are creating with the ideas Bendy failed to do anything interesting with.

Also the books, the books slap.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

IMAGINE. working at ur stupid uhhh job or whatever. pulling into your drive way and ready to work on some crazy project in your garage. opening the door to the most unfamiliar silence. did your wife and kid leave for something? could you imagine knocking on your kids door, hardly getting an answer, and opening it to find the splattered remains of your wife across his room your child is scared! hes hardly consolable, in a state of shock and terror. you are too, but youre the adult here. you need to take charge. you need to protect him. you need to do something. you need to do something.

[lunarharp]

"Found out" set in kind of a made-up chapter where the girls are in trouble, or something.

[commsroom]

hera wolf 359 is the most trans woman character of all time. it’s the way she’s treated as a woman implicitly - that people have those expectations for her in terms of roles and affectations - but not a real woman, always with the caveat she’s a different category of person. that she is canonically deadnamed and de-gendered as a form of control. the general distrust she feels, fear that respect for her identity is insincere and/or that it can be revoked at any time, if she’s too disagreeable. that she is reflective about her identity and place in the world to an agonizing degree, in a way even the other marginalized people around her aren’t quite, not in the same way, because it feels like all she can control. that she has an internal self-image, cultivated inwardly and maybe not even knowingly, even while she is under the impression no one will ever be able to see her, and that being seen in the way she exists in her own subjective memory is pivotal to some of the biggest moments in her character arc... that she feels this physical loneliness and this seemingly insurmountable gap between the way others perceive her and the way she thinks of herself. and most importantly, that the ways she feels different, the things she feels make her fundamentally doomed... so much of that is just not true and falls away during the course of the show...

[doll-elvis]

“he moved her chemically more than anyone she had ever met, all other men seemed pale beside him”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

[sexologii]

Joseph could EASILY go home if he agrees to being a pawn, but thankfully he’s a super fan he should say no

[the-seelie-court-official]

It's so funny being told to kill myself by an anon. Honey you're scared of me And I've been on the Internet since the forum days. Your shitty low effort CAPS LOCK hate means nothing to me. Do better

[a-blip-of-billdip]

this isnt what i usually post on this blog but I'm already sick of all the memes and 'jokes'. I am almost certainly leaving the fandom for good now because of the book of bills release and NO it is not because billford's community has an influx of supporters.

So the worship and romanticization of asylums and other abusive practices for mental health have been steadily gaining traction in recent years, especially with the rise of tiktok's toxicity.

SO many people, especially younger people, regularly talk about how they want lobotomies or how women they don't like should be lobotomized. They get tattoos of lobotomy like it's some quirky fun thing and not one of the most horrific tortures someone can endure.

These same people, ESPECIALLY leftists, will look at anyone they disagree with or don't like and say "get institutionalized, loser" or "et therapy" and it's always in a mocking way. it's always in a policing way.

because these people know that mental wards strip everyone of their freedom and their bodily autonomy. they know these places arent for healing--theyre for silencing.

So the amount of people i see treating bill being institutionalized like a good thing---even the writers and alex himself?

Yeah. Im out ✌🏼

[suncaptor]

nothing will make you sympathise with conspiracy theorist ideology more than having a seemingly rare reaction to a vaccine lmao.

[mxtxfanatic]

You know what I find frustrating with Shen Jiu fans sometimes ? Just because he had reasons and maybe didn't do other things he was accused of, it feels like that either justify his behavior towards Binghe and/meant it wasn't that bad when he was so abusive ?

Shen Yuan discovers that he had reasons and a tragic backstory and never once does he try to justify his abuse, he is very much "cool backstory still hurting a child who did nothing wrong" and he has so much of this that he makes the choice for Binghe and assumes he wouldn't forgive him either for that and the abyss (when it's not his choice to make).

I wouldn’t mind people discussing the complexity of Shen Jiu if it did not come paired with the need to absolve him of his shitty personality. Shen Jiu is a serial abuser who did 100% of the things he was accused of with only some of those things having a secret intent that others didn’t know about. He does go to brothels but people just didn’t know why, he is antagonistic and physically violent towards Liu Qingge because of an imagined slight, and he has abused multiple children outside of Luo Binghe out of jealousy, so much so that many left the sect before Luo Binghe became the newest target. People trying to excuse his worst behavior because a few of his lesser actions had not-bad motivations is nonsensical, since the reason why people won’t side with him to begin with is because of his toxic personality.

A great example of just how much Shen Jiu made his own bed is the Water Prison arc. Shen Jiu gets thrown into the water prison with no defenders (yqy defends him but not his actions) because with how maliciously he treated people, no one doubted that he would act maliciously in any situation. Shen Yuan, in the same situation accused of the same crimes, gets defended almost to the point of violence breaking out, making it so that he had to willingly relinquish himself to avoid a fight, because with how kindly he acted towards everyone, no one could believe that he’d either 1) kill an entire household or 2) do so without a good reason. Neither man chooses to justify their actions or deny the accusations in the face of the scrutiny, but one is immediately condemned while the other is given the benefit of the doubt. What a massive difference.

[tea-cat-arts]

Went down a bit of a rabbit hole (the jc antis were so insistent that "canon jc" was the only tag for them so I wanted to see of "jc critical" was a tag that was actively used) and what do you mean people are calling Jiang Cheng an incel???

Like, when in the books has he ever been hostile towards a woman because they've refused to have sex with him??? When in the books has he even tried to have sex with a woman? Like, if you want to argue that he has internalized misogyny because of his beauty standards thing, sure- I'll hear you out- but incel is a very specific brand of misogyny and it is pure headcanon if you want to call him that

And I kept seeing people bring up the getting black listed by matchmakers thing as proof he's an incel and like??? You know there's more possibilities for why he'd be undatable than just "being an incel," right? Like, maybe he's just loud and angry. Maybe he just jumps to conclusions during arguments. Maybe he just doesn't know how to drop grievances. Maybe he's just an equal opportunity asshole. Or maybe he's just an emotional constipated stick-in-the-mud. The possibilities are endless and acting like "he's an incel" is the canon answer is just clown behavior